


a garden that's bursting into light

by leiascully



Series: Nights On New Caprica [2]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-07
Updated: 2009-10-07
Packaged: 2017-10-03 07:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We'll make our own time."</p>
            </blockquote>





	a garden that's bursting into light

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: 3.09 Unfinished Business  
> A/N: For [**kitlee625**](http://kitlee625.livejournal.com/), who had a birthday, and [**meryl_edan**](http://meryl-edan.livejournal.com/), who wanted something sweet. It doesn't get a lot sappier than this. Many thanks to [**icedteainthebag**](http://icedteainthebag.livejournal.com/) for reading it over. Title is from Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars".  
> Disclaimer: _Battlestar Galactica_ and all related characters belong to Ronald Moore, NBC Universal, Sci-Fi Channel, and Sky One. No infringement is intended and no profit is made from this.

Laura woke up with the sun in her eyes and Bill's broad chest warm underneath her cheek. His breath caught in his throat with a rasp, not quite a snore. It was charming somehow, or maybe that was the lingering effects of afterglow tinting her vision with rose in the morning light. She smiled. It felt unutterably good to wake up next to someone, especially someone as bulky and warm as Bill. Even with his uniform jacket draped over her, it was still chilly. She would be stiff later from lying on the ground; she was already a little sore through the hips and shoulders, though that could be attributed to the previous night's activities. She stretched, pressing her body against his, basking in the tentative heat of the sunlight and in the delicious feeling of release in muscles she hadn't used in far too long.

She was damp with the dew that was all around, her muscles were knotting up, and her hair was a mess, but she was happier than she could remember being since before the end of the worlds. By rights, she ought to have a whopping hangover and a pile of regrets, and instead she had a lover and fresh hope. She rolled off Bill's chest and curled up against his side, looking up at the sky, giddy as the little clouds whisking across the blue.

Back on Caprica, she'd had a small balcony once, with a stubborn miniature rosebush she'd thought would never bloom. It had budded, scarlet points against the green leaves, but the buds had stayed so obstinately furled that she had decided it would never flower, and then one day in early fall she'd stepped out and found the bush so bright with tiny roses that it looked like it was on fire. She felt like that now: blazing with the glory of the unexpected.

Was this her life? Was this her, curled up next to the admiral she promoted in a disarrayed love nest behind the row of tents, a liquor bottle and the ends of several joints scattered over the ground? When she licked her chapped lips, the tip of her tongue found an irritated place. She touched her mouth with her fingertips. Yes, it was true: she had mustache burn.

Giggles bubbled up in her. She couldn't hold them in, wasn't even really trying. She collapsed back onto Bill's chest, her body shaking. He opened his eyes and smiled sleepily.

"Now that's a sight to wake up to," he said, smoothing her hair with one hand.

"Do you realize," she said, "we frakked under the stars like teenagers? While we were drunk and high."

"We were drinking, not drunk," he said, still gazing at her.

"The stars were shining," she said, sketching a landscape in the air with one hand. "I waxed philosophical. You kissed me _very_ thoroughly."

"I remember," he said. He shifted on the rough blankets. "I'm still feeling it."

"Oh, me too," she said throatily. In for a cubit, she thought, and let her fingers wander over his chest. "Still...feeling it."

He arched an eyebrow. "I think I take your meaning."

"Do you?" she asked. "Because you're still wearing clothes."

"I had an idea," he said, sitting up carefully, easing her down. "There will be people here. Let's go down by the river, to that stand of trees where the grass is thick. You may be young and resilient, but that'll be easier on my old bones."

"Young nothing," she said, voice tart but affectionate. "You just want to make love in the grass for the romance of it."

"I do," he said. "It's not often I get a chance to make love to a beautiful woman near a tree by a river." He waited a beat. "Not lately, anyway."

She slapped his arm lightly and he grinned and pushed himself up, offering her his hand. She took it and he helped her up, then picked up the blanket and shook it out, folding it over his arm.

"If you were down here more often, maybe you'd have more chances," she said.

"I'm here now," he pointed out. "I hope that doesn't invalidate the present chance."

"You know what I mean," she chided. "In the future. I hope you come back."

"Gonna invite me up to your cabin when it's built?" he teased, crooking his other arm for her to take.

"Let's just say that you'll have a standing invitation," she said.

"I don't know," he said. "I think lying down is about the best I can do these days."

"The fun never stops with you, does it?" she mused.

"Not yet," he promised. "Not ever, if I have anything to say about it."

"We've abandoned our quest," she said. "Abandoned our destiny. I believe that we're free to choose our own lives now."

"My life is on Galactica," he said.

"I know."

"I have quite a bit of shore leave saved up, though," he continued. "I was thinking about taking an extended vacation. I wondered if you had space for a shiftless admiral."

"I might be able to make room," she said thoughtfully, "depending on how well you can convince me in the next few minutes."

"This patch of grass looks promising," he said. "I'll do my best to perform up to your standards."

She released his arm and he shook out the blanket, smoothing it over the grass.

"You know, I really thought it was too late," she said.

He took her face gently in his hands. "We'll make our own time."

She smiled and kissed him as the sunlight fell on their skin.


End file.
